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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Rebecca Solnit

Gisèle Pelicot has rewritten her story – and electrified women all over the world. But what about men?

Gisèle Pelicot leaves Avignon courthouse after hearing the defence's final plea, 16 December 2024.
Gisèle Pelicot leaves Avignon courthouse after hearing the defence's final plea, 16 December 2024. Photograph: Clement Mahoudeau/AFP/Getty Images

Women who are raped are in many countries – perhaps in most – violated and abused again by the legal system. And yet during her reckoning with the crimes of her husband and 50 other men, all now found guilty in a historic set of verdicts, Gisèle Pelicot seized control of the narrative, becoming a hero in France and around the world.

After she discovered her husband had been drugging her and offering her up online to strangers to come and rape while she was unconscious, Gisèle left her home, her marriage and the story she had told herself about her life, and spent some time in seclusion.

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